So yeah, it's my 22nd b-day in Dublin, and I still got another 4-5 hours until official home time, but I already got some whiskey/vodka in my system once the clock hit, but no worries! I'm saving my longer festivities until later on the night of my b-day! I celebrated at home with my family before I left with my brother's b-day and yet it's still an interesting time. I'm here in Dublin, on my own without connection to my family and friends I've known, but I'm doing just fine so far. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate everyone and miss everything! ;) Just thought I'd make that small update thank everyone at home and here in Dublin that's already wished me a great beginning to my day... :)
love and respect,
Christopher
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
one week of classes down... tired and still surreal...
So first of all, to remind you all that uploading pictures here take forever. Right now, I'm using Photobucket, but the upload times for it is immensely slow. So, my blog entries are written and made, but not posted right away because I want pictures to go along with the reading to make it a super nice blog and not bland, you know? So, if you're expecting something fast, you have to give me some leeway since the internet here is slower. Unless I find a way to use Facebook, which loads the fastest, but I'm not sure if Facebook photos are able to be linked and viewable on Blogger for a long extended time (let's hope!).
I've been in Dublin for almost two weeks now, but still I wake up every morning feeling like I'm at home in the U.S. The only reason I remember is the first thing I see is the traffic on my way to the Luas going the opposite direction (which by the way is very dangerous, be wary of bikes, buses, and cars at all times! I've had a couple encounters to close calls three times now...), the street signs are in English and Gaelic (which they prefer to call it Irish here) and of course the sweet accents (which I tend to slip into on some occasions at the moment, I believe I'll most likely have a slight accent when I come home).
I think in a way I'm at that point where I miss a couple things from home, but I have some good memory triggered things here to keep me company. I brought my pillow I made in middle school Home Economics, which makes it more tolerable to sleep since the pillows here are really soft and not neck supporty enough (Also to note, I've been having some trouble sleeping because our comforters are heavy and I'll wake up sweating, so yeah we tend to keep the windows open at night). Second, my connection in beverages is Dr. Pepper, it tastes exactly like home. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to find since it is predominantly Coke here in Dublin. However, Coke does not taste like home. It IS good, but different (Water here is also much better, including the tap water that contains Fluoride). Third, most recently I found I miss my mom a little and they have a local favorite sandwich called Chicken Tikka (it's a nice Indian style prepared sauce with the chicken). As this sandwich is close to my mom's name, Tikkri, it gives me a sense of home and reminds me of her whenever I see it.
Another food point, is that I recently had Subway, which if you find it on the right side of town is rather decent priced (but not on Grafton Street, aka big Tourist street, = Overpriced!). So, I got the most basic footlong of Turkey Breast and Ham on Italian bread, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, black olives, and mayo. Every bite I took, I swear I could taste every single thing at once. Each item could be sensed at the same time, from bread to dressing. Basically every sandwich or food item here has a richer taste that I've noticed. It is FANTASTIC! But to also go along with that instance, food in cans here such as certain soups, ravioli, and spaghettios (at least the cheaper brands I've noticed) do not taste as well as the American counterparts. Canned foods just seem a bit more on the lacking side and thus fresh food is more of the plus side.
Orientation, which was held at the IES Centre was rather interesting to learn from, as well as long and boring at times. However, I learned some nice things like where to shop to save money (including Lidl's and Aldi's, which is like the Aldi's at home, cheaper than Wal-Mart! haha), places to avoid, and places to enjoy my time. They also encouraged us to travel and gave us a booklet on finding cheap airfare, bus lines, and rail systems. And on top of that we get a free Student Travel Card that helps us get discounts at certain places of food, travel, and entertainment.
The Dublin Bus Tour that Saturday was very much a good way to get to see the city and some spots to help scope out where I can go in the city itself. Let me say it's huge, but small at the same time. And Phoenix Park most especially, where the Dublin Zoo and where the President Mary McAleese lives, is amazingly beautiful. *I took a few photos of that so I plan that to be a post of it's own accord most likely.* The scavenger hunt this past Wednesday was also a nice option to view the city within walking and a two hour period. It was very tiring, we didn't win, but I feel it helped me find some things much faster and get to know more surroundings.
The weather here is rather nice for this week of classes, it's been rather sunny and warm, but cool at night. It mainly rains here, so I'm anticipating that, but at the same time dreading it. I don't really have a rain jacket, which I might be looking into buying one if it gets too bad because the wind is strong and my umbrella has held up for now (which gratefully hasn't failed me with my umbrella curse and all). Speaking of clothing also, short was a bad packing decision since it's usually too cool to wear them, and the days that are nice, I forget to wear them. Also, they are usually a "tourist-type" clothing.
9 of the 19 Theatre Students at St. Stephen's Green Park for a lunch picnic...
Classes thus far have been rather interesting, some more exciting than others. The only downside that I mainly am concerned about was that we only have one class actually in the Gaiety Acting School while the other 4 are in the IES Centre. Our teachers are from Gaiety, but we're only actually in the building twice a week, once in the afternoon on Mondays and Friday mornings. Those will be the only two classes as well when we'll be integrated with other Irish students come October (since that's when their official term starts) so that means we get a month early training which is nice. *I'll be trying to get some pics of IES Centre and the Gaiety up when I get to taking them*
My Devising class is an interesting mix of direction and improv, which has been rather exciting, but the teacher is rather on the "shut up and learn" side of teaching Theatre it seems. Watching others perform some framing excercises were really funny and if we laughed she would shush us to be quiet and observe, not to be an audience. I feel in a way she's right, but at the same time there's a difference when there's an actual audience and you're on stage.
Movement class is more different than my Movement class I took with Adam Noble at IU (which was Suzuki based). It's more dance oriented with some rhythm mixing and yoga. I've done yoga with Adam in Sun and Moon Salutations, but this is more break yoga (I forget the actual name of it). Basically it's the yoga that you do in pain and that's obviously not my kind of yoga... however, the dance oriented and rhythm mixing is a good part of the class. It's kind of like organized movements with music rhythms and a bit of Stomp oriented techniques in hand claps thus far.
Acting class so far has been a mix of games and things we've done in Devising so far, but it's been a rather interesting idea of how using games can be affected by acting as well. Voice class is so far nice, but it's going to be a more one-on-one experience as the days go on. Contemporary Irish Drama so far seems more like a discussion class so far, though I'm still iffy if I like the teacher yet. I've only had one day with him so far though.
And as for the weekends, I have plans to visit places soon since I have time and freedom to do them.
my 1st Rainbow in Ireland, which was Friday at our Voice class in the Gaiety Acting School
love and respect,
Christopher
~~~~~~~~
I've been in Dublin for almost two weeks now, but still I wake up every morning feeling like I'm at home in the U.S. The only reason I remember is the first thing I see is the traffic on my way to the Luas going the opposite direction (which by the way is very dangerous, be wary of bikes, buses, and cars at all times! I've had a couple encounters to close calls three times now...), the street signs are in English and Gaelic (which they prefer to call it Irish here) and of course the sweet accents (which I tend to slip into on some occasions at the moment, I believe I'll most likely have a slight accent when I come home).
I think in a way I'm at that point where I miss a couple things from home, but I have some good memory triggered things here to keep me company. I brought my pillow I made in middle school Home Economics, which makes it more tolerable to sleep since the pillows here are really soft and not neck supporty enough (Also to note, I've been having some trouble sleeping because our comforters are heavy and I'll wake up sweating, so yeah we tend to keep the windows open at night). Second, my connection in beverages is Dr. Pepper, it tastes exactly like home. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to find since it is predominantly Coke here in Dublin. However, Coke does not taste like home. It IS good, but different (Water here is also much better, including the tap water that contains Fluoride). Third, most recently I found I miss my mom a little and they have a local favorite sandwich called Chicken Tikka (it's a nice Indian style prepared sauce with the chicken). As this sandwich is close to my mom's name, Tikkri, it gives me a sense of home and reminds me of her whenever I see it.
Another food point, is that I recently had Subway, which if you find it on the right side of town is rather decent priced (but not on Grafton Street, aka big Tourist street, = Overpriced!). So, I got the most basic footlong of Turkey Breast and Ham on Italian bread, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, black olives, and mayo. Every bite I took, I swear I could taste every single thing at once. Each item could be sensed at the same time, from bread to dressing. Basically every sandwich or food item here has a richer taste that I've noticed. It is FANTASTIC! But to also go along with that instance, food in cans here such as certain soups, ravioli, and spaghettios (at least the cheaper brands I've noticed) do not taste as well as the American counterparts. Canned foods just seem a bit more on the lacking side and thus fresh food is more of the plus side.
Orientation, which was held at the IES Centre was rather interesting to learn from, as well as long and boring at times. However, I learned some nice things like where to shop to save money (including Lidl's and Aldi's, which is like the Aldi's at home, cheaper than Wal-Mart! haha), places to avoid, and places to enjoy my time. They also encouraged us to travel and gave us a booklet on finding cheap airfare, bus lines, and rail systems. And on top of that we get a free Student Travel Card that helps us get discounts at certain places of food, travel, and entertainment.
The Dublin Bus Tour that Saturday was very much a good way to get to see the city and some spots to help scope out where I can go in the city itself. Let me say it's huge, but small at the same time. And Phoenix Park most especially, where the Dublin Zoo and where the President Mary McAleese lives, is amazingly beautiful. *I took a few photos of that so I plan that to be a post of it's own accord most likely.* The scavenger hunt this past Wednesday was also a nice option to view the city within walking and a two hour period. It was very tiring, we didn't win, but I feel it helped me find some things much faster and get to know more surroundings.
The weather here is rather nice for this week of classes, it's been rather sunny and warm, but cool at night. It mainly rains here, so I'm anticipating that, but at the same time dreading it. I don't really have a rain jacket, which I might be looking into buying one if it gets too bad because the wind is strong and my umbrella has held up for now (which gratefully hasn't failed me with my umbrella curse and all). Speaking of clothing also, short was a bad packing decision since it's usually too cool to wear them, and the days that are nice, I forget to wear them. Also, they are usually a "tourist-type" clothing.
9 of the 19 Theatre Students at St. Stephen's Green Park for a lunch picnic...
Classes thus far have been rather interesting, some more exciting than others. The only downside that I mainly am concerned about was that we only have one class actually in the Gaiety Acting School while the other 4 are in the IES Centre. Our teachers are from Gaiety, but we're only actually in the building twice a week, once in the afternoon on Mondays and Friday mornings. Those will be the only two classes as well when we'll be integrated with other Irish students come October (since that's when their official term starts) so that means we get a month early training which is nice. *I'll be trying to get some pics of IES Centre and the Gaiety up when I get to taking them*
My Devising class is an interesting mix of direction and improv, which has been rather exciting, but the teacher is rather on the "shut up and learn" side of teaching Theatre it seems. Watching others perform some framing excercises were really funny and if we laughed she would shush us to be quiet and observe, not to be an audience. I feel in a way she's right, but at the same time there's a difference when there's an actual audience and you're on stage.
Movement class is more different than my Movement class I took with Adam Noble at IU (which was Suzuki based). It's more dance oriented with some rhythm mixing and yoga. I've done yoga with Adam in Sun and Moon Salutations, but this is more break yoga (I forget the actual name of it). Basically it's the yoga that you do in pain and that's obviously not my kind of yoga... however, the dance oriented and rhythm mixing is a good part of the class. It's kind of like organized movements with music rhythms and a bit of Stomp oriented techniques in hand claps thus far.
Acting class so far has been a mix of games and things we've done in Devising so far, but it's been a rather interesting idea of how using games can be affected by acting as well. Voice class is so far nice, but it's going to be a more one-on-one experience as the days go on. Contemporary Irish Drama so far seems more like a discussion class so far, though I'm still iffy if I like the teacher yet. I've only had one day with him so far though.
And as for the weekends, I have plans to visit places soon since I have time and freedom to do them.
- Galway, Lisdoonvarna, and Doolin (which include the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher) are the weekend of October 2nd-4th, where a couple of us Theatre kids will meet up with a few of the general studies kids in our program and spend the weekend together.
- On October 22nd - 26th, after Mid-Terms, the Theatre kids will be taking a weekend trip to London for Theatre week, which includes seeing plays and shows in London and theatre visits (including Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!!).
- I want to visit Bray, Dun Laughery, County Kerry and a few other places around Ireland, but I also want to go to Scotland, and possibly Rome (if the plans and money worked out, but most likely NOT happening now). Amsterdam was a choice as there are a few kids in my program going, but I figure I know I want to experience a lot, but not TOO much considering I'm still limited in funding and what not.
my 1st Rainbow in Ireland, which was Friday at our Voice class in the Gaiety Acting School
love and respect,
Christopher
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Currency Exchange and Souvenirs...
So, I just finally got to uploading this, YouTube is a little faster than I expected...
watch this!
Christopher
watch this!
Christopher
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The Flat...
Since the Wi-Fi in Dublin is almost a new concept to them, the internet connections are rather slow at times, mainly when uploading pics and video it takes FOREVER! But you've been waiting to see the apartment, I know you have! Here is the tour!
The Front Door and coat rack (or in this case a hoodie rack):
The Front Door and coat rack (or in this case a hoodie rack):
Bedroom 1 (Matt's bed on the left, mine on the right):
Bathroom 1 (connected to Bedroom 1):
The Hallway:
Bedroom 2 (second door on the left, Zach and Andres' room):
Bathroom 2 (First door on the right):
Closet (second door on the right):
The Living Room:
Flatmate #1 (Matt):
Flatmate #2 (Zach):
The Dining Room:
The Kitchen:
The Cabinet (already stocked with glasses and dishes):
The Washer (in the Kitchen and takes two hours for one load!):
The Dishwasher:
The Fridge (the freezer is on the bottom):
The Stove (toaster, knives, and silverware also included):
Zach and Matt (on our two SMALL love seats):
The TV (small, yet nice flatscreen)
The Drawers (we haven't found uses for them yet):
The Other Computer and Phone (it's an extra computer and the phone is incoming calls only):
The Patio (if you can see the rain, it's like that 75% of the year):
So, as you can see it is a very rather nice apartment complex, they try to make it very safe and accommodating for us. Our apartments are gated off that you have to have a key to enter the complex grounds, that key also opens the apartment complex, but the second key opens the actual apartment door.
Other than that, my only issues with the apartment is the beds, because while it is comfortable, I am like a giant in it. My feet hang over the edge a little and the comforters only reach the length and width of the bed top. The pillows are a little weak, so I easily fall asleep on my arms then wake up, because I can't feel them. But I will make due...
The flatmates both seem like very nice guys. We done some basic grocery shopping and split our important things (such as TP and soap) evenly with no issues. Also, our fourth flatmate Andres has arrived as of Friday. He seems nice from what I've seen, but hopefully he'll be nice and pitch in as well.
love and respect,
Christopher K.
p.s. my next blog will be about (Thursday-Saturday) some orientation and the bus tour, including the Dublin Zoo! :) Future blogs include the Luas, the Dundrum Town Centre (the mall), some differences of America and Dublin, classes, traveling trips (including London!), and just life in general!
Other than that, my only issues with the apartment is the beds, because while it is comfortable, I am like a giant in it. My feet hang over the edge a little and the comforters only reach the length and width of the bed top. The pillows are a little weak, so I easily fall asleep on my arms then wake up, because I can't feel them. But I will make due...
The flatmates both seem like very nice guys. We done some basic grocery shopping and split our important things (such as TP and soap) evenly with no issues. Also, our fourth flatmate Andres has arrived as of Friday. He seems nice from what I've seen, but hopefully he'll be nice and pitch in as well.
love and respect,
Christopher K.
p.s. my next blog will be about (Thursday-Saturday) some orientation and the bus tour, including the Dublin Zoo! :) Future blogs include the Luas, the Dundrum Town Centre (the mall), some differences of America and Dublin, classes, traveling trips (including London!), and just life in general!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Day One... that seemed forever...
The day before my flight I luckily got to even spend some last minute time with one of my best friends Margo, whose one of the few friends I feel I've gotten closer to this summer. We spent some shopping time together with my mom and then later we came home for pizza and and homemade ice cream cake. We watched I Love You, Man which was pretty good, but later watched Last House on the Left, which is a disturbingly creepy movie. It did a pretty good job for a remake, even though I've never seen the original. Also, I got a new haircut that day which to me is definitely different, it even had me kind of iffy on it at first, but I like it a lot now.
So I woke up the morning of my flight around Noon, and spent the next two hours getting last minute things done, including saying goodbyes and packing what last minute things I could fit into my suitcase. Which at this point felt like the total pounds of these two suitcases was well over 100. The actual limit for the flight was 80 pounds, and we were worrying it was going to go over for sure costing me $40-50 bucks.I spent a little bit in the last few minutes before heading off to O'Hare airport with my mom, saying goodbye to my two cousins Kristi and Holly, and my brother and sister Nick and Lauren. It seems like I got closer to them as well this summer, so it seemed like I was leaving like before as I had done with IU Bloomington, but seemed a little worse. I know this is going to be what it's like when I leave home for sure and live on my own. It's a sad feeling, but I know this is a preemptive effort in making my way to be successful and independent. I know I won't just cut my family out in any way, but to know I can do things on my own is a nice indicator of my status in life.
Around 4pm-ish, mom and I arrived in O'Hare and got me settled in as I checked in. Thank God, because the bags that we thought were over 100lbs were in fact, somehow, 50lbs and 20lbs. No extra payments added it seemed like everything was running smoothly, just anxiousness set in slowly then. My father called me and I couldn't even really talk to him. My mother and I ate some McDonald's there and had a chat about life and how I felt about past instances and future endeavors.
I realize it's really nice to know I have such a good relationship with my mother, because she's been there for everything and her being there to send me off was a really nice sentiment. In fact, giving her the first hug goodbye was the hardest and I started to cry. I've never left the country. I've never felt this far a disconnect from home. I can't just call my mom and be like "Hey mom, where'd you put my socks?" Next, I gave her my phone (by the way, I have no phone at the moment. I call forwarded all my cell phone calls to my home phone, so leave a message if it's important and my mom will let me know) and said my final goodbyes. I left for the security gate and my mom shot one last picture of me.
And here it was
, me alone with no connection with anything but myself. It was a little nerve racking, but I felt I handled it rather well. My flight gate for Aer Lingus E122 wasn't that far and I didn't have to wait more than 30 minutes to even get on and settled in my seat when we left at 6:50pm. I thought this entire "8 hour" flight was going to be something of a boring, hermit journey. Luckily, this 6 and a half hour flight was an enjoyable, yet long, nice flight. My seat neighbor, who introduced himself was Felix Mendez, a videoographer/camera person working on a documentary in Ireland for the next 11 days was rather nice and we had a few talks about music and film.
Other than a nice neighbor, this flight was the first giant plane I ever flew on. It included flat touch screens in the back of the seats with movies, television shows, music with options for making playlists almost like an mp3 player, games you can play with a remote control (that served as the movie remote as well) and flight information including where we were currently flying through GPS. It was all free, and we also got 2 meals included, for dinner chicken and rice with a little salad and little cheesecake slice, and breakfast of a croissant with cheese and ham.
During the flight, I watched Ghost of Girlfriends' Past and Watchmen (for the second time, mainly because the length of the movie made the flight seem quicker). They both are good movies, though I realized in watching these that they were edited for almost everything, except for violence. If you're going to take out language and sex, why not go for the triple threat. I don't understand why it's okay to expose your kids to people being blown apart, but not to hear or see the things they see and hear with their friends. You can only keep so many things for so long anyway...
On the final landing, I was rather excited that seeing the greenness of Ireland was as exciting as seeing it in a movie, even though it was a rather gray day of rain. Getting off the plane, I realized right away the smell was different. It's like you could definitely sense the cleanliness of it, but also like you could sense the plant life in the smells. It's like you could smell the green! :) Next, however, after waiting for a half hour getting through the passport checking station, I was told that I didn't get a full visa for Dublin and I had a month to go to the Garda (Irish police, pronounced Gar-dee) and pay 150 Euro for the rest of my stay.However, after going through that, I met up with a girl from my program who we shared a taxi to the apartments and we each only paid 30 Euro a piece which was nice, because Amanda is in the Theatre program and we have a lot of the same interests and same ideas of spending time in Dublin on weekends. After getting to the apartments, I met up with my two roommates (or flatmates as they call them here in Dublin) and both Matt and Zach seemed like two nice guys that are in their own right are funny and interesting. I ended up finding out I'm sharing a room with Matt, while Zach has a room to himself if the other supposed member, Andres, of our foursome shows up by Friday this week. As for the apartment, the next post is the apartment pictures! ;)
After a couple hours of settling in, TV watching, and internet surfing, our groups decided to visit the shopping place Dundrum Town Centre (which is basically a big mall) and get some food and know the area. It was a very nice and interesting journey, which I plan to document further with my camera when I get to know it a bit more. I ate an interesting sandwich of ciabatta bread with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, and chicken. I added a pop and muffin to it and realized further that Dublin's currency of Euros is rather expensive. It added up to be 10.50 Euro, which would be almost $13.25 for one meal! After our meal, we went to the grocery store in the centre called Tesco. At a first glance, and considering I've worked in a supermarket for almost 5 years, nothing in the grocery store makes sense where it is placed. Eggs aren't cold, food is labeled differently, and things I normally would expect to be priced that I know the name brands in alcohol are doubled! My first small shopping for 17.50 Euro consisted of this:
After we returned from the shopping, which consisted of a 5 min walk in the rain, we headed back to the apartments and took a couple hours to nap (I had been awake for almost a whole day by this point) before our night journey to the IES Centre and our first pub using the Luas (pronounced "Louis") train rail system. (I will update more on this system of travel, but it's a rather comfy ride to and from places and I've been told because our classes are not within walking distance, IES is paying for our passes to ride the Luas for free. That's about 48 Euro a month. EXCITEMENT for free travel options!) After the nap, I almost broke the electrical outlets as I was plugging in an adapter for the plugs here, I put in a surge protector which supposedly wasn't made to work unless you buy a converter for the voltage here in Dublin. Well, it basically fried, and we lost power for a little while until we found the circuit breaker, and now I have to be REALLY careful about what I'm plugging into the sockets. (I was even scared to plug in my laptop for it to charge!)
After our ride on the Luas and walk to the IES Centre (so we had an idea where to go tomorrow for our 2-day Orientation), we traveled to The Barge for our first pub experience. I got a pint of Guinness (which tastes much better over here but still isn't for me) and some chips (which is what they call "fries", potato chips are called "crisps") for about 7.50 Euro. The ketchup and mayo that I used with my chips tastes much better than home; the ketchup tasting like more of a tomato and the mayo more egg potent. I've been told they don't use a lot of preservatives in their food products here so they can spoil faster, but evidently they do taste better.
This event also made me realize how cool everyone in the program has been so far. We all have clicked rather well, some more than others of course. We had a mini get together after the pub visit in our apartment of seven of us just talking and hanging out while drinking and playing some "never have I ever" games. And now, I took some time to get this blog entry done so I can update everyone, since my shared room is a little occupied at the moment.
In the meantime, I should be getting some sleep... since it is currently 3:45am here in Dublin, and I have to get up at 9am to catch the 25 min ride on the Luas at 9:30am-ish to the IES Centre for Orientation at 10:15am. And, I hope this rain isn't bad because I heard it's pretty consistent this time of the year... Yay, for wet socks and shoes!
love and respect,
Christopher K.
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